Today we were picked up in the Elk lot across the street from the condo by the Timberline Tour bus for a day of white water and scenic rafting. This was a family trip, class 3 rapids, so there were quite a few kids along. In fact, I think we were just about the only couple without kids on any of the five rafts! We drove to Eagle to their boathouse, where we got geared up with PFD's (personal flotation devices), helmets and paddles, and assigned to a raft. We drew Wild Bill Bishop, who was actually the group leader, along with a family of five from Chicago.

It was our job to help Bishop carry the raft and get it in the water. Considering there were only 5 adults with 3 kids, the raft was heavy. We got down to the water and got a quick lesson on paddling and following instructions, which, by the way was lost on our teammates who were busy putting on sunscreen and retrieving items they had left on the bus

Once we launched we quickly hit the first set of rapids. Described as "refreshing", the water was downright cold! That first big splash in the face really got our blood pumping and we were yelling and screaming and paddling, or at least most of us were. The girl in front of me pretty much lifted her paddle out of the water each time we hit some rapids. As I said, these people were not good at listening so in turn not so good at following directions.

What they were good at was River Wars, something I was totally not expecting. The battles began after we made it through all the rapids which were at the beginning of the ride. Each time we'd come up to another raft the splashing began. Sometimes we'd get sandwiched in between two rafts and get bombarded from both sides. It was fun, although I totally sucked at the whole splashing thing. One girl on another raft came armed for battle with a water cannon. She could smack you in the face from 20 or 30 feet, and sometimes that hurt! It was fun for a while, but once the sun went behind the clouds it started to get a bit chilly so we were ready to call a truce and raft peacefully down the river, much to the disappointment of the young 10 year old boy with us.

There was some beautiful scenery as we rafted through the canyon, and a few places we could get out and swim

. Several people were brave enough to enjoy the "refreshing" water, but we weren't one of them. Aside from the cold water I wasn't looking forward to looking like a fool trying to get back into the raft. At one point we paddled over to check out a hot spring flowing into the river. Glenwood Springs is known for its medicinal hot sulfur springs and is home to the world’s largest natural hot springs pool.

Our river trip ended in Glenwood Springs where we were served up burgers, hot dogs, chicken and pulled pork sandwiches with all the fixins cooked fresh on the grill. We enjoyed a lovely lunch on the river, allowing us some time to dry off a bit before it was time to load up the bus and head back home. It was a great way to spend some time in the outdoors seeing sights that are unavailable through a car window. And it's something I definitely look forward to doing again!